Virtually all key figures under the bovine TB Eradication Programme saw increases in 2023, with the number of reactors and herd restrictions seeing notable increases on 2022.
The amount of money spent by the state on the programme also increased – by about €17 million – in the same period, while the herd incidence rate also went up, reaching almost 5% by the close of 2023.
New data released publicly by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine shows that, in the 12-month period from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023, 28,868 TB test reactions were detected in cattle, compared to 23,337 in the same 12-month period of 2022.
On the same time period comparison, 2023 saw 5,078 herds locked up with TB, compared to 4,492 in 2022.
The herd incidence rate as of December 31 last was 4.89%. This is the highest herd incidence rate at the close of a year since before 2010 (the Central Statistics Office does not provide data from before that year).
The 2023 herd incidence rate is an increase on the 2022 figure, and follows on from two consecutive years of very slight improvements in incidence rate (4.31% in 2022, 4.33% in 2021, and 4.38% in 2020).
Total expenditure by the state on the eradication programme for the year 2023 hit around €74.3 million, a significant jump of 29% from the €57.4 million figure in 2022. The figure had been hovering in the mid-€50 million range for the last number of years.
Within that overall expenditure, all categories with the exception of two saw increase.
The On-Farm Market Valuation Scheme, the main lever of TB breakdown compensation for farmers, saw the state pay out €34.7 million, and increase of over 50% on the 2022 figure of €22.9 million.
Other compensation measures cost around €5.1 million in 2023, up 39% on the €3.6 million figure in 2022.
The wildlife control aspect of the eradication programme incurred a cost of €7.7 million in 2023, up 20% on 2022, when around €6.4 million was spent in this area.
Costs for supplies was €10.6 million in 2023 compared to €8.1 million in 2022, an increase of around 31%.
Fees paid to animal valuers amounted to €818,000 in 2023, up 24% from €660,000 in 2022; while ‘other costs’, amounted to €1.3 million, a 19% increase on the figure for 2022.
The only areas which saw less expenditure in 2023 compared to 2022 was in fees for vets, which amounted to €13.3 million – a decrease of only 2% – and research, for which €832,000 was spent, a decrease of 26% on the figure spent in 2022.